Subject areaRevenue and sales
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a contact who, by marketing's criteria, has shown enough interest and fits the ideal customer closely enough to deserve sales attention.
The judgement usually rests on a score that adds who the person is (role, company) and what they did (downloads, visits, replies).
It comes from inbound marketing and is the first rung of a ladder: sales accepts it (sales accepted lead), checks it and qualifies it (sales qualified lead). The criterion has to be written together with sales, otherwise marketing delivers volumes that sales judges empty.
An example
A company providing financial services to businesses gives ten points to anyone who downloads the tax credit guide and twenty to anyone who visits the pricing page. Above fifty points, with a finance director role, the contact becomes an MQL and goes to sales.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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